Tester Urges Superfund Listing for CFAC to Keep Glencore’s ‘Feet to the Fire’

COLUMBIA FALLS – U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., applauded the owners of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company in their efforts to clean up the shuttered plant along the Flathead River, but said he still believes the site should be designated a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

On March 24, Tester joined officials from Glencore for a tour of the 807-acre industrial site just north of Columbia Falls. The tour comes just weeks before Glencore begins construction of numerous wells to study the groundwater and soil to determine the level of contamination on site.

From 1955 until 2009, the plant produced millions of pounds of aluminum, but the decades of industrial activity on the site has resulted in an extensive water and soil contamination, according to previous studies.

While some elected officials have said they don’t think the site needs to be listed as a Superfund – in hopes of avoiding the “stigma” that might come with it – Tester said he firmly believes it should be included on the federal cleanup list. Tester said his opinion is shaped by past dealings with Glencore.

“We need to hold their feet to the fire. I applaud their efforts to clean up the site up so far, but I think if this were to become a voluntary effort they’d walk away from their responsibilities,” Tester said in the shadow of the former plant. “They’ve walked away from past deals time and time again. We may be dealing with different people now but it’s still Glencore.”

Since October 2015, 16 small structures have been torn down in an effort to clear the site and eventually sell it.

Glencore purchased the aluminum plant in 1999. In October 2009, the company curtailed operations because of economic issues and an increase in power costs. Tester tried to negotiate a 10-year power deal between CFAC and the Bonneville Power Administration that would reopen the plant, but Glencore ultimately walked away from the deal. In 2014, Tester said Glencore had misled the community and that it “never had any intentions of (reopening CFAC).” Since then, Tester has been pushing for a full-scale environmental cleanup of the site so that it can be sold and repurposed.

Late last year, Glencore agreed to an Administrative Order of Consent that states it will pay for the environmental damages at the site and work with the EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality on a $4 million remedial investigation into the full scope of the contamination.

The site is currently on the National Priorities List, which is a precursor to Superfund listing. EPA officials have said they will decide later this year whether the property should be approved for a Superfund cleanup.

Glencore officials have said they hope the site can be cleaned up without such designation.

“This company does not want this site to be listed because we believe it would make it tougher to redevelop and sell the site. It would make it a much less attractive site for potential owners,” said Glencore spokesperson Cheryl Driscoll, who joined Tester on the tour.

Tester disagrees and said a Superfund listing would make no difference on the site’s future value.

“Once this place is cleaned up there will be no stigma attached to it,” he said, adding its proximity to a scenic river, a rail line and an electric power plant make it an attractive buy.

But not all of Montana’s Washington D.C. delegation agrees with Tester. Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Whitefish native, has opposed listing the site as a Superfund. During a tour of the old aluminum plant last month, he said listing the site would drag out the cleanup effort. Zinke said he favors having the DEQ take the lead in overseeing Glencore’s cleanup.

Tester said that Zinke might have a different opinion about listing the CFAC site if he had the same experiences the senator has had with Glencore.

Local officials have also been split on whether the site should be listed. Earlier this year, the Flathead County Commission approved a letter supporting the alternative plan proposed by Glencore that cleans the site without making it a Superfund. On the other side, in February, the Columbia Falls City Council sent a letter to Tester urging him to “stay the course” and get the site listed by the EPA.

Columbia Falls Mayor Don Barnhart said he falls somewhere in the middle; he just wants the site to be cleaned up so the community can move forward.

“I understand why Sen. Tester has a bad taste in his mouth about Glencore because they’ve walked away from deals in the past,” Barnhart said. “We just want the site cleaned up, we want it done right and we want it done fast so that we can redevelop it and I think that’s what’s happening right now.”

A public meeting about the CFAC cleanup will be held at Columbai Falls City Hall on April 5 at 6 p.m.